An ambitious project to save forests, species and livelihoods

The Greater Annamites mountain range is an area of high biodiversity, unique endemism, and includes one of the largest continuous natural forest areas in continental Asia. It is also an area where deforestation and illegal logging are rife.

Whilst the new project, the Carbon & Biodiversity Project (“CarBi” for short[1]), is important for species and forest conservation, it will also enhance the income of the area’s culturally diverse people who also depend on forests for their livelihoods.

The project area, equivalent to the size of more than 280,000 football pitches, is important in the fight against global climate change as the forests remove carbon dioxide (CO₂) from the atmosphere – also known as a carbon sink – and our aim is for this project to reduce global emissions by an estimated 1.8million tonnes of CO2.

WWF will work with partners, including local communities in the region to help rehabilitate, restore and protect the forest, including 4 protected areas, with two connecting corridors that will allow species to move between the areas. These protected areas provide unique habitat for some of Asia’s most charismatic and rare species, including many only recently discovered by scientists, such as the saola and douc.

The partnerships will also help to reduce the many threats the region is facing, including illegal or unsustainable logging, unsustainable agriculture and illegal timber trade, by training forest and local administration officials, and promoting sustainable forest management and sustainable livelihood initiatives that increase the income of local communities and businesses.

Overall the trans-boundary nature of the project will also help build future collaboration between both nations, Laos and Vietnam.

____________________________________
[1] The full title of the project is: Avoidance of deforestation and forest degradation in the border area of southern Laos and central Vietnam for the long-term preservation of carbon sinks and biodiversity (CarBi).

Download the Carbi Book here

CarBi’s strong belief in creating a sound governance platform in close partnership with its highly valued government counterparts, also providing strong guidance, implementation support and oversight through an effective Project Management Unit system, further strengthened the momentum towards high impact results. The CarBi Family’s passionate and energized commitment to succeed as a collective, balanced with consistent honest reflection on lessons learned and concomitant adaptive management, allowed us to bring about significant change, but also reminded us that we still need to continue this journey towards the desired destination.

These stories will highlight how the CarBi Family succeeded in significantly improving Protected Area management effectiveness, how Payment for Forest Environmental Services (PFES) was used to stimulate financial sustainability, the rediscovery of some of the world’s rarest ungulates…and even a new snake species, a world class Forest Guard system destroying more than 100,000 snares, creating in excess of 170,000 person days employment, supporting integrated and high impact forest restoration, achieving more than 80 newspaper articles and reaching more than one million people through Facebook, and also attracting significant co-financing from a broad spectrum of donors, which also ensured collective value fore money.  

If you want to go fast, go alone. If you want to go far, go together. CarBi intentionally decided to take the latter route to ensure high impact at scale, sustainably. Although these stories are only small windows into some of the more significant CarBi interventions, we trust that you will share the rays of sunshine and warmth of hope with all the inhabitants of this unique, but fragile environment we are privileged to support.

-Fanie Bekker
Trans Boundary Director:  CarBi

WWF Greater Mekong's CarBi programme (Avoidance of deforestation and forest degradation in the border area of southern Laos and central Vietnam for the long-term preservation of carbon sinks and biodiversity), is an unprecedented 6 year trans-border basket of conservation economy projects, which aim to protect and regenerate more than 250,000 hectares of unique forest at both pattern and process levels in one of the world's biodiversity hot spots, focused on the Central Annamite Mountains, joining Laos and Vietnam.  It brings together development partners, national, provincial and district governments, as well as local communities to preserve and restore the forests and their unique species, and to protect and enhance the livelihoods of the people whose existence depends on the ecosystem services provided by these forests.